9 of the Most Ridiculous Kitchen Gadgets

Let's take a look at some of the most pointless, pricey, and silly kitchen contraptions out there so you can know what not to waste your hard-earned money on.

Are you tempted to buy the latest and greatest kitchen gadget promising to make your life easier? You do not need fancy equipment or expensive ingredients to cook up a delicious, healthy, made-from-scratch meal. All you really need—bare bones—is a good knife, a pot, and a pan (and food, of course). You do not need to overload your kitchen with a bunch of single-use gadgets or tools. In fact, doing so is counterproductive because it makes cooking seem more difficult than it really is. Cooking a healthy meal or snack for yourself and your loved ones does not require space-age equipment.

In fact, if your kitchen is cluttered, it may actually cause you to eat worse. A recent study out of Cornell University, seen in the scientific journal Environment and Behavior, revealed that having a cluttered, messy kitchen caused people to eat more food (snacks and meals) that was high in calories. The cluttered kitchens created stress, which led to study participants overeating both because they sought out higher-calorie fare and also ate a larger volume of food. However, this does not stop companies from trying to con you into buying the latest “It” gadget for your kitchen. Let’s take a look at some of the most ridiculous counter-top space wasters out there.

Avocado Slicer

If you don’t know how to properly handle an avocado—one of the healthiest foods out there—you probably don’t deserve to enjoy one. The device is supposed to split the avocado, remove the pit, and slice the inner flesh. You know what else does that? Your knife. Also, I have tried one of these tools and they do not work at all.

S’Mores Maker

This large contraption takes all the joy of roasting marshmallows over an open flame and tries to bring it inside, minus the beautiful ambiance of gathering around a crackling campfire with loved ones. This clunky kitchen gadget promises to roast 9-12 marshmallows at once without the inconvenience of enjoying an actual campfire. This sad, bulky gadget will have you forking over nearly $50, much more than a stack of campfire logs would cost.

Monogrammed Barbeque Branding Iron

If you want to spend $58.95 to sear your initials into your steak to avoid getting it confused with someone else’s cut of meat, go right ahead and waste your money. With this tool, you can personalize your meat with any three letters in the alphabet—and, wait for it—an ampersand!

Specific Fruit & Veggie Slicers

Do you really need a tool so specific it only slices mushrooms? Or tomatoes? How difficult is it really to slice up your produce on a cutting board? Your cutting board and knife are much easier to clean and take up less space than these plastic devices, which require you to very carefully clean all the tiny convoluted divots and crevices.

Soft Pretzel Maker

For $45, you can make two large or six small pretzels all at one time, in about three minutes. Sounds convenient and fun, right? Then you remember you own an oven.

Condiment Gun

I suppose this plastic condiment dispenser might come in handy if you really wanted to start a food fight, but otherwise, these seem like the kind of item that you use once and then forget about, only to have it collect dust in the abyss of some basement cabinet.

Sushi Bazooka

If you have ever wanted to make sushi rolls at home whilst simultaneously shooting a bazooka, this is the kitchen tool for you! For something that has such a single, specific function which seems incredibly pointless and difficult to clean, the only positive is that it looks cool.

Perfect Bacon Bowl

Bacon has seemingly permeated our entire food supply and even other aspects of our lives. You can now order bacon-scented lip balm and all sorts of bacon-themed clothing. But just when you thought you’ve seen it all, along comes the Perfect Bacon Bowl. Do you love bacon but don’t want other people to know you eat a ton of it? Never fear, the Perfect Bacon Bowl is here! This mold allows you to make a bowl out of bacon so you can fill it with food and then eat the bowl, thus destroying the bacon evidence.

Quesadilla Maker

This gigantic waste of precious counter-top space is not worth your money. The six-wedge quesadilla maker costs about $20 but quesadillas are incredibly easy to make in a skillet and this pointless contraption will only end up annoying you because of the sheer amount of space it takes up.